Members of Florida’s LGBT community continue to face employment discrimination, leaving about 328,000 workers vulnerable without civil rights safeguards from a state law, according to a new report from the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute. 
Researchers at the the UCLA research institute released their report on March 11. While 31 counties and cities in the state have legislation that bar workplace discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, report authors Christy Mallory and Brad Sears found that about 46 percent of workers in Florida lack such safeguards.
“A statewide law prohibiting employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity would bring new protections to thousands of workers without burdening courts and agencies,” Mallory said in a statement.
Mallory suggested that the state could handle such complaints under the current legal structure. Any change would not require spending more money or hiring additional people, she said.
Mallory and Sears also pointed to reports of discrimination against LGBT residents in the state in recent years.
In 2010, for example, 63 percent of LGBT faculty and staff workers surveyed at the University of North Florida said they had faced at least one case of harassment or bias on campus. Faculty and staff workers said that harassment was because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Also that year, in a national survey, 81 percent of transgender residents in Florida said they had experienced mistreatment or harassment at work, Mallory and Sears said. In addition, 56 percent of the respondents said they had lost a job or were denied a promotion because of their gender identity.
Two years ago, the researchers added, 73 percent of Florida residents said in a survey that they back the Competitive Workforce Act. This state legislation would have provided safeguards to LGBT residents from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Mallory and Sears said that about two dozen of the top companies in Florida already have policies that prohibit sexual orientation discrimination.
A statement about the report did not detail how the researchers arrived at the estimate of about 328,000 workers who lack legal protection from discrimination in the state. But the full report can be read on the Williams Institute’ website.
The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender, Identity, Law and Public Policy is based at the UCLA School of Law. It works on independent public policy research.